What it costs
What does a custom website actually cost?
A custom small-business website is a scoped one-time build plus a monthly from $150. The build is the variable — it moves with page count, how much has to be designed rather than assembled, and whether commerce, booking or a CRM connection is in scope. A template site costs less and is a different product.
Why nobody publishes one number
A website is not a unit. Two businesses can both ask for "a website" and mean a five-page brochure and a forty-page catalogue with inventory sync. Any agency that quotes a single figure before knowing which one you are has either priced for the worst case or is selling a template with your logo on it.
What can be published honestly is the shape of the number and what moves it. That is what this page does.
What actually moves the price
In rough order of impact:
- Page count, and specifically how many are genuinely different rather than the same layout with new words.
- Whether the design is drawn for you or adapted from an existing system. Original design is the single largest line on most builds.
- Commerce. Taking money adds a payment integration, tax handling, order states, and a whole second set of things that can break.
- Integrations — booking, CRM, inventory, a client portal. Each is its own small project with its own failure modes.
- Content. If copy and photography do not exist yet, someone has to make them, and that someone is usually billable.
- Migration. Moving an existing site means preserving URLs and rankings, which is careful work that produces nothing visible.
The costs most quotes leave out
Three recur often enough to name. First, the annual costs after launch: domain, email, any paid plugins or services the build depends on. Ask for that list before you sign, not after.
Second, content. A quote that assumes you will supply finished copy for forty pages is a quote that will grow.
Third, the cost of the thing not working — analytics that were never configured, a contact form that fails silently, a page that search engines and AI assistants cannot read. These are not line items and they are the expensive ones, because you pay for them in leads that never arrive rather than in an invoice.
How Revio prices it
A scoped one-time build, then from $150 per month. The monthly covers hosting, maintenance, security updates, and ongoing changes; it is not a rental. Every asset — the code, the design files, the domain, the analytics accounts — is registered in your name from the first day, so ending the monthly does not end your access to your own website.
Websites typically take four to six weeks. The quote comes after a scoping conversation, and it is a fixed number rather than an hourly estimate that grows.
| Factor | Effect on the build | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 5 pages vs 40 | Large | Every genuinely different layout is designed and built once |
| Original design vs adapted | Large | Design hours are the biggest single line on most builds |
| Selling online | Large | Payments, tax, order states, and far more to test |
| Booking or CRM connection | Moderate | Each integration is a small project with its own edge cases |
| Copy and photography | Moderate | Someone has to produce it if it does not exist |
| Migrating an existing site | Moderate | Preserving URLs and rankings is careful, invisible work |
Directional, not a price list. The scoping conversation produces the actual number.
Common questions
- Is a custom website worth it over a template?
- It depends entirely on whether your business sells in a way a template anticipates. If a template layout matches how you actually convert customers, use one — it is cheaper and faster. Custom is worth paying for when the template is forcing you to sell in a shape that does not fit.
- Why is there a monthly on top of the build?
- Hosting, security updates, monitoring, and ongoing changes. The monthly is not a licence fee for your own site — every asset is registered in your name, so cancelling means you keep the website and take it elsewhere.
- How long does a custom website take?
- Typically four to six weeks from scope to launch. The most common cause of overrun is not development — it is waiting on content and approvals from the client side.
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